On Monday, I had breakfast with a group of 12 IDF heroes. Chen shared his breathtaking story with us:
Chen was a sergeant in the Nachal brigade. In last year’s Operation Protective Edge, he and his unit found themselves in BeitChanun, searching for terrorists.
As they searched one particular house, Chen remained downstairs while the rest of his unit proceeded upstairs to clear the top floor. There they were ambushed by hidden terrorists and most of the unit was injured. Chen and the other uninjured soldiers had to evacuate the wounded and also deal with the terrorists. Gunfire flew from nearby houses, and they returned fire.
Approximately ten minutes into this gun battle, there was sudden silence from the Hamas terrorists, and Chen knew that could only mean one thing: they were preparing to fire a missile at the house.
Certain that these were his final few moments on earth, Chen raised his right hand to cover his eyes and said, “ShemaYisrael, HashemElokeinu, Hashemechad” –“Hear oh Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the L-rd is one.”
As his eyes were covered, the missile hit and a large piece of shrapnel came flying towards him and hit his right hand exactly where he was covering his eyes. The shrapnel wounded his hand severely, but had he not raised his hand to say the Shema, he surely would have died.
When Chen shared his story I was amazed. We have no idea what G-d has planned or why He does what He does. But in this case, praying clearly saved Chen’s life.
We are currently in the midst of the beautiful festival of Chanukah, when we commemorate the victory of light over darkness, and the triumph of a small group of Maccabees who defeated the mighty Antiochus and his massive army.
Chen and all his brothers and sisters in the IDF are our modern-day Maccabees. They are at the forefront of our battles, and with G-d’s help and the power of prayer, we shall surely win!